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Telegram from Alice Paul to Governor Albert H. Roberts
1920 August 18
Paul, Alice, 1885-1977
Alice Paul, president of the National Woman's Party, wrote on behalf of the organization to congratulate Governor Roberts on his "splendid fight for ratification" and to express her appreciation for his work for the enfranchisement of American women.
- Title:
- Telegram from Alice Paul to Governor Albert H. Roberts
- Creator:
- Paul, Alice, 1885-1977
- Date Created:
- 1920 August 18
- Description:
Alice Paul, president of the National Woman's Party, wrote on behalf of the organization to congratulate Governor Roberts on his "splendid fight for ratification" and to express her appreciation for his work for the enfranchisement of American women.
The 19th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution granted women the right to vote. When the Tennessee General Assembly passed the ratification resolution on August 18, 1920, it gave the amendment the 36th and final state necessary for ratification. Suffragists and anti-suffragists lobbied furiously to secure votes during that intense summer in Nashville. The ratification resolution passed easily in the Tennessee State Senate on August 13, but the House of Representatives was deadlocked. When young Harry T. Burn of Niota changed his vote to support ratification of the 19th Amendment, he broke a tie in the House of Representatives and made history. Albert H. Roberts (1868-1946), served as a single term governor of Tennessee from 1919-1921. Roberts hesitated to call a special session of the General Assembly to consider the ratification of the 19th Amendment, in part because many legislators maintained that voting on the resolution in special session would violate their oath to the Tennessee constitution. Rulings from the Attorney General, and pressure from the national Democratic Party, particularly from President Woodrow Wilson, persuaded Roberts to support the special session and the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Though Roberts won national acclaim for his support of women's suffrage, many conservative Tennesseans were outraged. His support for women's suffrage was one reason for his defeat in the 1920 gubernatorial election by Republican Alfred Taylor.
Item details
- Partner:
- Digital Library of Tennessee
- Contributing Institution:
- Tennessee State Library and Archives
- Subjects:
- Women -- Suffrage -- Tennessee
Constitutional amendments -- United States -- Ratification
Roberts, Albert Houston, 1868-1946
National Woman's Party (U.S.)
Activists
Correspondence
Political organizations
Politicians
Women's rights
Women's suffrage - Type:
- text
- Format:
- Telegrams
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